Long ITTs in a Grand Tour

[avanti]

Looking back on GT history the longerst ITT I can find was stage 10 of the 1987 TdF which was won by Steven Roche in 1:58:11.

Is this the longest ITT ever in a Grand Tour?

I would love to see more long ITTs in a GT (although I understand the issues of running such an event).

I would also like to see GTs use ITTs every few years on the penultimate or last stage.

 

[roundabout]

137km, stage 20 of the 1949 Tour. Colmar-Nancy.

I think 60km is the maximum length of TT allowed by the rules.

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

Are there any rules on this actually?
I believe the ITT which won Menchov the Giro was nearly 70k long.

Edit:
no it wasn't. But it was just a fraction longer than 60km, 60,6 to be exact.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

137km, stage 20 of the 1949 Tour. Colmar-Nancy.

I think 60km is the maximum length of TT allowed by the rules.

wow!

do you have a source for this?

that would really kill some guys today.

 

[roundabout]

http://www.lagrandeboucle.com/article.php3?id_article=1010

Maybe there have been longer time trials as it was a very brief search

 

[hrotha]

The Spanish commentators were talking about Purito's future as a GC guy, and they reached the conclusion that yes, he's a perfectly valid GT contender, but he'd need the race to have less ITT kms. I was like, what the hell am I hearing.

 

[roundabout]

2010 Giro.

 

[AngusW]

The 1947 Tour de France had a 139 km time trial. Rene Vietto lost the GC lead to Pierre Brambilla on this stage, partly due to the amount of alcohol he (Vietto) consumed during the TT (IIRC).

 

[taiwan]

The Spanish commentators were talking about Purito's future as a GC guy, and they reached the conclusion that yes, he's a perfectly valid GT contender, but he'd need the race to have less ITT kms. I was like, what the hell am I hearing.

TBH this was a great parcours for him this year. The long chrono in the middle of the race, time bonuses, short climbs in the decisive final stages.

 

[crapna]

English Wikipedia claims 1988 Vuelta had a 179km ITT won by Sean "big favourite" Kelly but this cannot be true.

 

[Descender]

English Wikipedia claims 1988 Vuelta had a 179km ITT won by Sean "big favourite" Kelly but this cannot be true.

LOL it was 30km long.

 

[Dancing On The Pedals]

The Spanish commentators were talking about Purito's future as a GC guy, and they reached the conclusion that yes, he's a perfectly valid GT contender, but he'd need the race to have less ITT kms. I was like, what the hell am I hearing.

He had about as perfect a route at the Vuelta as he is ever likely to get, and finished no where! Do they want even less than this year?

 

[movingtarget]

He had about as perfect a route at the Vuelta as he is ever likely to get, and finished no where! Do they want even less than this year?

Spanish humour ? Am I missing something ?

 

[mb2612]

80km is the max allowed for a TT currently, but in the WOrlds and Olympics it has to be between 40km and 50km

 

[will10]

80km is the max allowed for a TT currently, but in the WOrlds and Olympics it has to be between 40km and 50km

Which regulation(s) is that then?

 

[will10]

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12795854&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

 

[Siriuscat]

My own view is that a GT should comprise roughly 5% of it's total distance as Time Trials, that includes Prologue, Team Time Trials and Individuals TTs. So this year of the total of 3430.5Kms should have had around 170KM or so TT kms. Just a thought.

 

[Swede1]

Its about time the Tour de France put in some longer TT's. I'm hoping they have 1 medium length TT and one longer TT this year. Say a 30 k flat and an epic 55K hilly one.

 

[royalpig180]

All three of the GTs largely eschewed the TT this year, so I'm hoping for just the opposite next year.

The Giro was the only one to feature three TTs. However, one was the relatively short opening TTT and another was a mountain TT. The only relatively flat TT kms were in the final Milan TT, which wasn't very long.

The tour just had the TTT and a flatish TT.

The Vuelta had the opening TTT and a longish-mid race TT. I would have loved another long one in the last week. That would have made the racing really interesting.

I'm hoping that at least one or two of the GTs next year feature two relatively long and relatively flat (as opposed to mountain TT) TTs. I'm tired of these ridiculously mountainous routes in which the organizers keep trying to outdo each other. We've gotten to the point where the race is so hard that riders just want to survive rather than race. More TT kms will provide a selection without killing everyone.

With that said, I think we're in for a couple more years of rather mountainous races before the trend reverses.

 

[Magnus]

The 1947 Tour de France had a 139 km time trial. Rene Vietto lost the GC lead to Pierre Brambilla on this stage, partly due to the amount of alcohol he (Vietto) consumed during the TT (IIRC).

According to memoire cyclisme the '47 139 km itt was the longest ever.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

every tdf should have at least one long itt where the winner would probably be the only one the finish under an hour.

i really think the minimum total km for an entire tdf should be 100k. for the other tours anything from 50-80k. that's for everything: itt, ttt, prologue, mtt.

if you want to make it a "climber's" parcours, fine. just put a really hard mtt in there.

obviously, 139k is too long for the modern era. but it would be hilarious to see fabian duking it out with tony martin for the gc.

 

[El Pistolero]

every tdf should have at least one long itt where the winner would probably be the only one the finish under an hour.

i really think the minimum total km for an entire tdf should be 100k. for the other tours anything from 50-80k. that's for everything: itt, ttt, prologue, mtt.

if you want to make it a "climber's" parcours, fine. just put a really hard mtt in there.

obviously, 139k is too long for the modern era. but it would be hilarious to see fabian duking it out with tony martin for the gc.

What makes you think Fabian could take minutes out of Contador in a third week long time trial(which are usually hilly in the Tour)? I wouldn't bet my money on it. Assuming they're riding under the same weather conditions of course. Cancellara wouldn't be in the' first 10 even if there were 139 time trial kms in the Tour. As long as there are some decent mountain stages in it, even 2009 would be too mountainous for him. He's one of the heaviest riders in the peloton, if he changes his weight, he also loses a lot of advantage in the time trial. Plus Cancellara's recuperation skills are quite mediocre IMO. He gets beaten a lot in third week time trials, but is still unbeatable in one day time trials. He's a one day racer pur sang and most one day racers can compete in one week races, but Cancellara will never compete in a Grand Tour for the victory unless they avoid all mountain stages.

 

[hrotha]

every tdf should have at least one long itt where the winner would probably be the only one the finish under an hour.

i really think the minimum total km for an entire tdf should be 100k. for the other tours anything from 50-80k. that's for everything: itt, ttt, prologue, mtt.

if you want to make it a "climber's" parcours, fine. just put a really hard mtt in there.

obviously, 139k is too long for the modern era. but it would be hilarious to see fabian duking it out with tony martin for the gc.

139km isn't too long. If we had 139km of ITT, we'd go straight back to an earlier era of cycling, because the climbers would actually have to attack and going in the last 6 or 7 km of the last climb wouldn't be enough.

It's a vicious circle. There's smaller gaps, so people attack less, so the gaps get smaller, so the ITTs are cut down to avoid creating big gaps, so people attack even less.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

139km isn't too long. If we had 139km of ITT, we'd go straight back to an earlier era of cycling, because the climbers would actually have to attack and going in the last 6 or 7 km of the last climb wouldn't be enough.

It's a vicious circle. There's smaller gaps, so people attack less, so the gaps get smaller, so the ITTs are cut down to avoid creating big gaps, so people attack even less.

to be clear: one 139 km itt is different from 139 km of itt.

i would love to see the latter. the former? i can't see it happening. would love to see the gaps between andy and bertie, though.

 

[El Pistolero]

139km isn't too long. If we had 139km of ITT, we'd go straight back to an earlier era of cycling, because the climbers would actually have to attack and going in the last 6 or 7 km of the last climb wouldn't be enough.

It's a vicious circle. There's smaller gaps, so people attack less, so the gaps get smaller, so the ITTs are cut down to avoid creating big gaps, so people attack even less.

Tony Martin in Tour shape would have won this Vuelta if we had 139km of ITT. No thanks. As long as the mountain stages don't include multiple mountain passes it's best not to have too much time trials. Though if you have a lot of Gardeccia like stages then bring on those time trials! But that's not going to happen in the Vuelta.

Giro could have used some more time trials though.